This time, there was no Mjolnir. No hammer handle. No conduit. Lightning erupted frantically from his chest, his arms, and deep within his bones.
Boom!
White-blue lightning surged violently through his hands into the black blade. The undead knight didn't even have time to scream before its armor and skeleton were incinerated into ash. The lightning radiated outward, sweeping over several nearby undead, turning their bodies black before they crumbled to the ground.
Thor stood in front of the child, his hands still bleeding. But his hair and cape were lifted by the electrical currents. He panted heavily. There was still unwiped blood on his face. But he remained standing.
Frigga looked at her son, tears in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. "Thor."
Odin also paused for a half-beat. He watched the hammerless thunder spread across his son's body, watching the child who used to only charge forward with a hammer finally touch his true power.
Odin's grip on Gungnir slowly tightened. He suddenly remembered the blessing he had placed on Mjolnir in his youth. Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.
But he forgot to tell Thor. That power never came from the hammer. The hammer was just the key. The door had always been inside Thor himself.
Kaido looked at Thor, his blood-stained jaws parting in a maniacal laugh. "There you go! Had to get the absolute sh*t beaten out of you before you finally wised up!"
Thor glanced back at him, his expression still grim. "You kicked me twice just now."
Kaido hefted his broken kanabo, utterly unbothered. "Put it on my tab! If we survive this, you can take it up with me!"
The smile completely vanished from Hela's face. She really didn't like this sight. She didn't like that Thor had stood back up. And she especially didn't like that this thunder could manifest without relying on Mjolnir.
"Another one of Odin's lies," she sneered. She raised her hands. The death energy across the entire plaza surged upward once again. "But it doesn't matter. All of you will die here today."
Thor took a step forward. Lightning crawled across the ground from beneath his feet. He didn't summon Mjolnir. He didn't even look at the fragments. He raised his fists.
"I don't know if I can beat you," Thor's voice was hoarse, but much steadier than before. "But I do know one thing. You won't take another step forward."
Kaido stepped up beside him, rolling his neck. His bones let out a sickening crunch. "Now that sounds like something a real man with balls would say."
He looked at Hela, the battle lust burning feverishly in his eyes once again. "Crazy woman. Round two—let's go!"
Hela raised her hand.
From deep within the palace plaza, at the edge of the tunnel leading to the Underworld rift, came a heavy, muffled growl. It wasn't the Berserkers. It wasn't ordinary undead. The sound was heavier, hungrier, carrying a nauseating stench of decay.
Odin's grip on Gungnir tightened abruptly. "Fenris."
Hearing the name, Thor's expression instantly darkened. Fenris, the ancient giant wolf of Asgard, who had once fought alongside Hela to conquer the Nine Realms. It was her most brutal beast of war.
It should have been dead long ago. But under Hela's death magic, death was never the end.
Inside the rift, a massive wolf claw clamped onto the ground. Blackened rotting flesh was patched together with white bone. A thick chain dragged behind it, the iron links scraping against the stone slabs with a teeth-grinding screech.
In the next moment, Fenris's corpse crawled out of the rift. Half its face was nothing but bone, the other half hung with dried, blackened flesh. Eerie green ghost-fire burned in its empty eye sockets. It opened its bloodstained maw, a foul wind sweeping toward the evacuation tunnel. Several Asgardian children sobbed in terror.
Heimdall leveled his sword, standing at the very front. Heimdall, the Gatekeeper of Asgard, guardian of the Bifrost, one of the greatest perceivers in the Nine Realms. He already bore over a dozen wounds, but the sword in his hand remained perfectly steady.
Frigga's magical barrier was being battered back by the Berserkers. The civilians huddled behind her in the tunnel, no one daring to make a loud noise. Everyone understood. If Fenris broke in, the tunnel would turn into a one-sided slaughterhouse.
Thor took a step forward. No Mjolnir. No answering thunderclap. Just the violent lightning darting wildly within his palms. The lightning was unstable; sometimes it dissipated, sometimes it stung his own bones. Thor knew he hadn't mastered it yet. But he also knew he absolutely could not retreat.
Standing in front of the evacuation line, he raised his head and glared dead at the corpse wolf that was taller than a house. "Over my dead body."
Fenris couldn't understand his words. It only smelled the scent of the living.
The giant wolf lunged, its claws shattering huge chunks of stone as it snapped its jaws toward the tunnel. Thor's eyes erupted with lightning as he fiercely drove both fists forward.
Boom!
White-blue lightning smashed brutally into Fenris's snout, blasting rotting flesh into the air. The giant wolf's head jerked to the side, but it didn't stop. Its broken body felt no pain. It only grew more vicious.
Heimdall cleaved down an incoming undead knight and shouted sharply at Thor, "Crown Prince, leave the rear to me!"
Thor didn't look back. Crown Prince. He had heard that title far too many times before. Heard it at banquets. Heard it after conquests. Heard it when his subjects cheered.
But it had never felt as heavy as it did now. It wasn't praise; it wasn't flattery. It was the weight of an entire people's lives pressed dead against his back.
Thor channeled lightning madly into his fists. "Then I'll handle the front!"
Fenris lunged again. This time, it was even faster.
Without Mjolnir to carry him in flight, Thor had to charge forward on his own two legs. His movements weren't graceful. They were even a bit clumsy. But he charged absolutely straight.
Man and wolf collided with an explosive crash. Thor's fists smashed into Fenris's lower jaw, the lightning drilling violently into the bone seams. Fenris's neck jerked back, but it immediately clamped its jaws down hard onto Thor's shoulder.
Blood spurted wildly. Thor grunted as the giant wolf whipped him up and slammed him brutally into the palace's outer wall.
Boom!
The stone wall crumbled. Thor's back was embedded in the wall, his shoulder a mangled mess. Fenris refused to let go, its fangs nearly piercing through his collarbone.
"Thor!" Frigga's voice tightened.
Heimdall tried to rush over but was firmly pinned down by over a dozen Berserkers. Odin saw it too. He suppressed the shock and rage in his single eye, but the undead were still pouring out of the rift endlessly. Once he left, the rear would be completely lost.
Thor grabbed Fenris's fangs with both hands. The fangs were thick—longer than his own arms. They were covered in rotting blood and the stench of death.
Thor's vision went black from the pain. He had been hurt before. But this time was entirely different. There was no Mjolnir to help him create distance. No hammer to absorb the impact for him. Every ounce of the lethal agony landed squarely on his own body.
So this was how much it hurt to be the God of Thunder.
Thor suddenly let out a laugh. It was an incredibly ugly laugh. "Turns out Father wasn't lying to me before. Being a god really does hurt."
His arms flexed with explosive power, and lightning drilled frantically from his palms into Fenris's mouth. Blinding white-blue electrical light erupted from the giant wolf's throat.
Thor let out a low roar, veins bulging across his forehead. "Let go of me!"
----
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